3 ms·

I have a real yearning to see some early 1990s corporate illustration now. It seemed like back then the motif of large framed doll people made of simple pencil

I have a real yearning to see some early 1990s corporate illustration now. It seemed like back then the motif of large framed doll people made of simple pencil shaded 3D effect geometry was very common. I can even picture in my mind’s eye a Netgear hub being packaged in a box showing two generic figures skipping over some hillscape, achieving corporate goals together. Maybe even Windows 3.11 used the style? I have no idea how to find an example though. Any help would be appreciated.

quink 7y ago
I know precisely the kind of style you mean. I just googled <random technology> and 1997 and found this here cover pretty immediately: https://www.amazon.com/Cisco-IOS-Configuration-Fundamentals-Systems/dp/1578700442 https://www.amazon.com/Cisco-IOS-Configuration-Fundamentals-... Probably not what you had a hazy memory of but probably very close. I love this style too. Edit: It's one of my favourite non-digital aesthetics in computing history, together with some of the stuff DEC did. Edit 2: Another minor reason I'm somewhat familiar with that style is because MUMPS vendor InterSystems kept some variants of it around for longer than reasonable: https://www.slideserve.com/broderick/introduction-to-intersystems-ensemble-and-the-tie https://www.slideserve.com/broderick/introduction-to-intersy... which I just adore. And just for another search, Microsoft 1996 yields this here thumbnail: https://i.imgur.com/wlr0U6j.png https://i.imgur.com/wlr0U6j.png for this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gMC_uFdcWE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gMC_uFdcWE
- gorgoiler 7y ago
  Brilliant!
  - quink 7y ago
    And a quick search for an old Netgear manual: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/298986/Netgear-Nd508.html#product-ND520 https://www.manualslib.com/manual/298986/Netgear-Nd508.html#...
scribu 7y ago
Adobe Acrobat had this style, even in 2003: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/adobe-acrobat-6 https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/adobe-acrobat-6
Yetanfou 7y ago
Noooo.... that 90's style annoyed me to no end as it was just as cookie-cutter copy as the current crop of vector art. For some reason there was one thing which made is especially annoying: the fact that nearly every person in those illustration was wearing a neck tie, often flying out at odd angles, often garishly coloured. Oversized besuited- and -tied figurines flying over hills and dales, I can still see them... The original illustrator who launched the style and all the others who copied it probably thought it made the figures look like 'professionals' but for me it just made them look like the superfluous managers who, like veritable parasites, had hooked themselves into the system and started extracting nourishment. Maybe the fact that I worked at a big telco which had created a separate business unit for that new-fangled internet thing had something to do with it? We were placed in a different building and had as little contact as possible with the mothership to make sure its stifling culture would not hinder us in making a place for ourselves on the 'net. When it became clear that the 'net was where it was at those manager-types started flooding in - and the early developer types started flooding out, me amongst them.

quink 7y ago

I know precisely the kind of style you mean. I just googled <random technology> and 1997 and found this here cover pretty immediately: https://www.amazon.com/Cisco-IOS-Configuration-Fundamentals-Systems/dp/1578700442 https://www.amazon.com/Cisco-IOS-Configuration-Fundamentals-... Probably not what you had a hazy memory of but probably very close. I love this style too. Edit: It's one of my favourite non-digital aesthetics in computing history, together with some of the stuff DEC did. Edit 2: Another minor reason I'm somewhat familiar with that style is because MUMPS vendor InterSystems kept some variants of it around for longer than reasonable: https://www.slideserve.com/broderick/introduction-to-intersystems-ensemble-and-the-tie https://www.slideserve.com/broderick/introduction-to-intersy... which I just adore. And just for another search, Microsoft 1996 yields this here thumbnail: https://i.imgur.com/wlr0U6j.png https://i.imgur.com/wlr0U6j.png for this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gMC_uFdcWE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gMC_uFdcWE

gorgoiler 7y ago
Brilliant!
- quink 7y ago
  And a quick search for an old Netgear manual: https://www.manualslib.com/manual/298986/Netgear-Nd508.html#product-ND520 https://www.manualslib.com/manual/298986/Netgear-Nd508.html#...

scribu 7y ago

Adobe Acrobat had this style, even in 2003: https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/adobe-acrobat-6 https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/adobe-acrobat-6

Yetanfou 7y ago

Noooo.... that 90's style annoyed me to no end as it was just as cookie-cutter copy as the current crop of vector art. For some reason there was one thing which made is especially annoying: the fact that nearly every person in those illustration was wearing a neck tie, often flying out at odd angles, often garishly coloured. Oversized besuited- and -tied figurines flying over hills and dales, I can still see them... The original illustrator who launched the style and all the others who copied it probably thought it made the figures look like 'professionals' but for me it just made them look like the superfluous managers who, like veritable parasites, had hooked themselves into the system and started extracting nourishment. Maybe the fact that I worked at a big telco which had created a separate business unit for that new-fangled internet thing had something to do with it? We were placed in a different building and had as little contact as possible with the mothership to make sure its stifling culture would not hinder us in making a place for ourselves on the 'net. When it became clear that the 'net was where it was at those manager-types started flooding in - and the early developer types started flooding out, me amongst them.